August 30 – A Frigid Discovery…

nPosted on August 30, 2020

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nJulius Johannes Ludovicus Ritter von Payer – in addition to having a really long name – had a pretty long career description: he was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army,  he was a painter and the founder of a painting school “for ladies,” he was a history and geography teacher and a professor at a military academy, he was a topographer and a mapmaker, he was a mountain climber with more than 60 peaks in the Alps in his list of “first person known to climb” list…

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n…and (pant, pant) he was an Arctic explorer!

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nIt’s that last bit that earned Payer the most fame. He participated in a German exploration of the Arctic, working as a topographer. That means he wrote and drew a detailed description of the natural features of the areas explored, including the shapes and altitudes of landforms, rivers, and lakes. The sketches and writings were later transformed into a map of the area.

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nAugust 30, 1873: Payer and co-explorer Karl Weyprecht discovered and named Franz Josef Land, a bunch of islands in the Arctic Ocean. 192 islands, to be exact!

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nThe Soviet Union annexed the islands in 1926, and they are now part of the Russian Arctic National Park.

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nAnd they’re pretty amazing:

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nPhotographers love the islands for the wildlife and the icebergs:

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nAlso on this date:

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nOceanographer Sylvia Earle’s birthday

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• nAugust holidays

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• nAugust birthdays

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• nHistorical anniversaries in August

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• nSeptember holidays

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• nSeptember birthdays

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• nHistorical anniversaries in September

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